What is EMV?

The term refers to Europay, MasterCard and Visa, the three companies that originally developed the specifications in1994. Today the EMV standard is managed by EMVCo, LLC, which is equally owned by American Express, JCB, MasterCard and Visa.

EMV is the technical standard that ensures chip-based payment cards and terminals are compatible around the world. A chip-based payment transaction occurs when a microprocessor, generally embedded in a plastic card or a personal device such as a mobile phone, connects to an EMV-enabled POS (contact or contactless). The smart chip securely stores information about the payments application and performs cryptographic processing. This provides an additional form of card authentication, validating the legitimacy of the payment type being used.

When will it affect me?

October 2015 - The party that is the cause of a contact chip transaction not occurring will be financially liable for any resulting card present counterfeit fraud losses. Does not include automated fuel dispensers (AFD). Click here to see a full EMV timeline.

This means that point of sale equipment will need to support EMV technology to avoid financial liability to the merchant. Click here for a Terminal End of Life Schedule.

What is the solution?

Genesis PPGalready supports EMV and can provide EMV equipment to the merchant. Click here for more equipment details.

Why now?

Losses from card-related fraud are increasing and the smart chip enables more robust cardholder verification to protect against consumer-level fraud, such as counterfeiting or lost/stolen cards, for EMV transactions.